By Diane Euston
It’s hard to ignore the power of winter weather – its unpredictability, the frustration of our favorite weathermen and women altering snowfall amounts, and the ability of the white fluffy stuff derailing city services. Even those (like me) who love snow don’t necessarily love the inconvenience it brings.
On Sunday, January 5, Kansas City officially saw 11 inches of snow in 24 hours, and for many, this was the most snow they’d ever seen fall at once. After seeing the power of this recent snowfall, for many it felt as if it should’ve broken a record or two.
However, a dig back into the records kept since 1893 show that there was one record that remains untouched, seemingly unbreakable as the season alone ranks as the worst on record when 16.1 inches of snow fell in Kansas City on March 23, 1912.
Further research indicates it wasn’t just that one day of snowfall that shattered the record books in 1912. The entire season was snowy, and how Kansas City used to handle snowfall was quite different than today.
The Weather Bureau and Patrick Connor
Patrick Connor (c.1856-1938), the Weather Bureau station chief from 1890-1930, was the sole meteorologist in the area for 40 years.
Before we “dig” into the snow total from 1912, a quick look into the history of the Weather Bureau – the precursor to today’s National Weather Service- demonstrates how weather was even predicted before modern-day radars and weather models dependent on technology.
In 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill which established a weather service that was first in the charge of the Signal Corps. There were 24 sites selected to predict the weather. Over time, hundreds of weather stations were added.
Kansas City didn’t have a Weather Bureau for many years, and the closest station was Fort Leavenworth. This changed in 1888 when an office was opened at 9th and Walnut. A year later, an experienced Weather Bureau employee named Patrick Connor (c.1856-1938) popped onto the scene.
Born in Dublin in about 1856, Patrick Connor, commonly referred to as simply “P. Connor,” gained his experience while stationed for 18 months on Tatoosh Island near the Puget Sound in 1876. He chose to join the Weather Bureau because he wanted to travel, and the quick growth of the agency guaranteed opportunities across the country.
Patrick Connor served for a time in Shreveport, La. and Des Moines, IA before landing in Kansas City as station chief. His Irish brogue accompanied by his tall, skinny stature became a welcomed presence in the city; his weather predictions would grace the pages of all the newspapers for 40 years.
The Weather Bureau moved in 1890 to the Rialto Building at 9th and Grand, and that same year, the agency was transferred to the Department of Agriculture. In 1907, the Weather Bureau under the charge of Mr. Connor moved to the Scarritt Building at 818 Grand Ave.
The methods used at the time to conduct weather predictions and precipitation amounts sound quite similar to today’s calculations. There was a “vessel” on top of the Scarritt Building made of galvanized iron. About eight inches in diameter and 32 inches tall, this vessel was checked three times a day by P. Connor.
When it snowed, P. Connor would collect the vessel, melt the snow and measure the water. In general, 10 inches of snow was equivalent to one inch of water. But he didn’t just rely upon this method to give his official snow totals in Kansas City. “To guard against mistakes, Mr. Connor and two of his assistants, who live in different parts of the city, measure each snowfall in the ordinary way with a ruler,” the Kansas City Star reported in 1912. “Care is taken to select open spaces for the measurements and to avoid drifts in order to ensure accuracy.”
Although Mr. Connor certainly didn’t have the technology afforded to current meteorologists, he did have a few surprising tools. For one, the Weather Bureau would transmit weather patterns at other stations, allowing him to predict the possibility of precipitation and temperature. He also had a “telethermoscope” on the roof of the Scarritt Building. This electric thermometer told him the temperature outside by wire transmission, making it so he didn’t have to go outside.
The Unrest Before the Big Storm
To be clear, Kansas Citians at the time were never as concerned about snow totals like we are today. Their main concern seemed to be temperature. This makes sense when one considers that the colder it was, the more likely homes were to run out of gas heat.
Before the record-breaking snow fell in March, Kansas City had a very wet fall in October, November and December of 1911. 9.52 inches of moisture was recorded – about three inches more than normal.
A familiar event unfolded in Kansas City on February 25, 1912. A system that developed in the southern Rockies brought rain to the region that turned to sleet before changing over to snow around noon. The system packed a punch; 10.5 inches of snow shattered a record set in 1900. Connor also captured thundersnow at just before 5 p.m., and seven inches of snow fell before midnight. Kansas and northern Missouri reported snow totals between 10 and 14 inches.
Telegraph lines snapped in multiple locations, and this crippled more than just reports of the weather from other areas. It meant there were no reports of when trains delayed by weather would arrive in Kansas City. A Union Pacific official reported, “It was the worst storm we have had in years. The wet snow clung to the wires, making them snap in many places soon after the storm started.”
Helping Hand Institute, a precursor to today’s Good Will, had multiple calls from citizens to help with removal of snow at private homes. They sent 200 men out to help citizens around the city and another 50 men to assist William C. Weaver (1862-1931), street commissioner, “in cleaning off the streets.”
On February 26, the city’s street department made a public call for any man who wanted a day’s worth of work. For $2 per day, these men worked downtown first at major street crossings in the business district clearing snow.
How Roads and Streetcar Lines Were Plowed
The process of removing snow from the streets was quite different than today. When the outside temperature was high enough – as it was in this storm – the city would open up the hydrants to flush the streets downtown. Then, men would push the melting snow into the sewers.
By noon on February 26, the city had successfully cleared the downtown streets of 10.5 inches of snow using this method. Eighty-seven extra teams and 114 hired men worked to clear it with the help of three horse plows.
In all fairness, the mere amount of paved city streets was nowhere near today’s number. In 1912, there were about 300 miles of macadam roads in Kansas City, and today, there are 2,700 miles of paved primary roads – and an additional 3,300 residential streets!
But during this time, a bulk of the busy roads weren’t just in the control of the street department. They had the help of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company who ran the city’s streetcars. They held a majority of the city’s main street traffic.
It was the job of the privately-held streetcar lines to clear their tracks, and they had a pretty sophisticated system for 1912.
When the streetcar employees would clear their lines and the snow made traffic impassable in other places, pedestrians would use their paths to walk. This was further complicated when the automobile would drive over the streetcar’s path and get stuck.
One person commented, “The lack of judgment shown by some of the drivers of trucks and vehicles was discouraging. They knew well that traffic conditions were bad and that the streets were heaped with snow.”
This also sounds familiar.
February 1912 was a brutal month with eight days of rain or snow – a total of 15 inches of snow falling in the heart of downtown.
The Kansas City Post wrote on February 26, “Kansas City is in the farewell embrace of winter.”
Little did they know that record-breaking snow was on its way again.
Contrary to the hopes of everyone, more snow fell on March 1, 1912 and continued the next day. On March 12, more snow fell on top of older snow that had yet to melt, and 14 inches of snow was left. In 15 days, a total of two feet of snow had fallen. “More snow has fallen in Kansas City in the last 15 days than in any entire winter for the last five years,” the Kansas City Times wrote on March 12.
As mentioned before, the Metropolitan Street Railway was in charge of clearing their tracks, and their sophisticated line crossed most of the city’s busiest streets and stretched all the way to Swope Park and the Marlborough Line.
To combat these storms, they employed an extra 500 men, 22 snow sweepers and three snow plows. They worked in 12 hour shifts, completing work day and night. In the storm on March 2, the streetcar company was equipped with 15 tons of salt and 55 cubic yards of sand.
The Metropolitan Street Railway had 24 sweepers with four experienced employees on each sweeper. These snow cars had a rotary made of rattan imported from South America. Brooms had to be reset with the rattan, and during snowstorms, 30 men were employed with weaving reeds into broom holders.
On these sweepers, one set of motors “propelled the car and another propelled the sweeper.” While one man drove, another operated the sweeper, a third man watched the broom and a fourth man sat in the rear to watch for any obstructions. Each sweeper carried two tubs of salt and a cubic yard of sand.
The streetcar also had three plows that were drawn by three mules that held heavy steel scrapers. These plows were used to push the snow piled up on the sides of the tracks.
Even a thaw wasn’t always helpful to those who could afford to own an automobile. Water, of course, would gather in low spots, and this was dangerous for “motor cars.” Anything deeper than four inches caused the engines to burn out and cost $125 “to replace the ruined parts.”
The Biggest Snow on Record Hits
Spring officially began on March 20, but rain was forecasted to turn to sleet and then snow. It appeared that winter had its grasp on Kansas City for a little bit longer.
On Friday, March 22 at about 7 p.m., the snow began – and it appeared to never let up.
Weather Bureau station chief P. Connor told the Kansas City Times, “This storm belongs to the same family as all the previous storms we have had this month. All of them originated in the southwestern part of the country and moved eastward.”
The storm seemed to have overtaken the Midwest, and at midnight, the snow continued to fall at impressive rates. 16.1 inches of snow was recorded in downtown Kansas City’s Weather Bureau, shattering all prior records by several inches.
But it didn’t end there. The center of this massive storm was near Jefferson City, and the bullseye was right over Kansas City. Snow consistently fell from 7 p.m. on March 22 and didn’t stop until Sunday, March 24 at 1 o’clock in the morning. In all, 20.4 inches of snow blanketed the city. It’s a record that remains untouched today.
Street commissioner W.C. Weaver called the Kansas City Star offices exasperated at their progress. “The snow so far this winter has cost the street department $30,000,” he complained. “This little flurry will add $10,000 to the winter’s bill. Isn’t it ever going to quit?”
The street department used 600 men to shovel the snow. Once again, the city “flushed” the snow into the sewer system utilizing the fire hydrants after the snow stopped.
The streetcar service “was seriously interfered with” but used their sweepers and snow plows along with 800 men to work on the snow. Half of these men were stationed at switches to prevent cars from getting stuck.
Although most lines were able to continue service, one “motorman” named Philip Lunt and conductor J.M. Veatch got stuck in a snowbank on the Marlborough line at 75th Street on March 23 at 4 p.m. At noon the next day, their superintendent told them to give up.
Much like ship captains manning a large boat destined for the ocean floor, these streetcar men refused to leave their post. The superintendent then vowed that he would send food and drink to them.
It turned out they didn’t need it; they knew so many of the patrons who frequented the Marlborough line that they were fed like kings.
Right at 4 p.m. the following day, 24 hours after getting stuck, the two men proudly returned their streetcar to the barn.
Where Did the Snow Shoveled Downtown Go?
When temperatures were high enough, the street crews would use the hydrants to hose down the streets and then sweep the melted snow into the sewers. However, when snow fell when temperatures didn’t cooperate, there was another system in place.
Near the Junction (9th Street where Delaware and Main intersected), there was originally a small creek that ran north from 6th Street across to near 5th and Main. The creek then went through the current-day City Market to 4th and Grand, and after swinging toward 3rd and Oak, it dumped into the Missouri River.
When Kansas City was platted and streets formed, this little creek was walled up. Street were built over it even after grading occurred, and 50 feet below, a large “trunk sewer” was built with access points at 6th, 7thand 8th and Delaware.
When the city couldn’t open up the hydrants and “flush” the snow into sewers due to the danger of freeze, the snow was shoveled up by men and carted off to the main trunk sewer. “The sewer is generally fed plentifully by hot water by the downtown district and the snow melts quickly,” the Kansas City Times reported on March 25, 1912.
A Wish for Winter Woes to Go Away
Things have changed in weather forecasting over the years; starting in 1934 and until 1971, the downtown airport was the official snowfall reporting location for the Weather Bureau. After 1972, the job has fallen to a location 19 miles to the north at Kansas City International Airport.
Could Kansas City’s current weather trend of snow continue? According to KMBC’s Nick Bender, “It’s not over. The big-picture pattern for the remainder of [January] features multiple waves of Arctic air that may be accompanied by more wintry precipitation.”
Today’s weather forecasting, despite our grievances on snow totals and accuracy, have greatly improved since the Weather Bureau first opened its office in Kansas City in 1888. And, we have the ability to look at multiple news outlets on various platforms in order to see what Mother Nature has up her sleeve. Today, supercomputers tailored to weather forecasting can make 29 quadrillion calculations per second!
But from 1890 to 1930, Kansas City solely relied upon the Irish-born Patrick Connor to tell them whether a jacket was warranted in the Spring or if an umbrella was needed before leaving the house.
At the Second Convention of Weather Bureau Officials in 1901, employees were asked if temperature predictions should be exact or if “the terms ‘slightly warmer’ or ‘slightly cooler’ should be credited.”
Patrick Connor had his opinion on predicting temperature. “I prefer the terms slightly warmer or slightly cooler. I think it is too much like splitting hairs to have to specify the maximum and minimum temperatures, although they should be used in verification of the night and day forecasts. I do not advocate specifying the exact degree.”
Needless to state, meteorologists today would never be given this grace for daily forecasting. Today, Nick Bender recognizes that meteorologists “have a fair amount of skill with temperature trends as far as eight to 14 days out.”
The same cannot be said even today about precipitation. The gamble of whether the air above will be cold enough to sustain snowfall is always in question. “It’s impossible to know what’s happening every second of every day in the oceans and atmosphere of our planet,” Bender explained. “Our observation network isn’t dense enough to collect and feed a perfect picture of the atmosphere into our weather supercomputer. Until we do, the atmosphere will continue to surprise and humble us.”
Let’s just hope that this current winter weather doesn’t shatter the records set 113 years ago. It’s not up to the meteorologists – it’s all in Mother Nature’s hands.